Thrift Shop Finds and a Give Away

A fun treat for me in winter is a day out thrifting with my friend B. A previous day was cancelled so we squeezed in a February afternoon last week.
This is my fave big thrifting bag, filled nicely for about 40.oo.

B is great for thrifting, easy going and never rushed [despite a flooded bathroom back home]. We went to the closer of the faraway thrift shops; we're getting good at this trip, only 40 minutes on a quiet winter day. Let's see what is in my bag?

Treasures! Wow.

I had nothing in mind to look for and not much money to spend. I was very surprised to find an array of goodies, all well priced.

Most of the tchotchkas were .99, the garments 5.99.

Shirts for quilt making.

Blog friends Penny and Nancy have gotten me to look at women's blouses as well as men's big shirts, for pretty Liberty-like florals and white ground shirtings. Both of these blouses are very fine but sturdy cotton batiste, I think.. 

You know how I love polkadots! GAP blouse, not really big but worth getting. Aspirin sized dots.

I love that every now and then a dot was shamrock green instead of the  pretty cobalt blue.

Golden plaids for my Blackbirds quilt; Sue is also making this quilt, in our meandering kind of way.

I had thought to make mine brown and blue but with my addiction to color I have rethought that and will do the mustard-y gold instead. The top plaid is a 1/2 yard, not thrifted, picked up somewhere; the bright blue and mustard lower right is another GAP shirt. Much more fun than brown!

Lovely tea towels, quite large. Looks like Italian linen damask but is cotton made in China. Lovely blue, deeper than the pics show, will soften with use and washing.

Dearest sweetest little plate. That blue!  Had to get it for 99 cents.

All hand painted, dainty flowers.

I couldn't read the label in the store, I thought it was Czech or Austrian, but it's from Japan, prob around 1930s?

I adjusted the color on this shot, below, to show the wonderful blue. The other colors are off, disregard.

Silverplate baubles dish. Unusual because it is a clam shell; most things like this are scallop shells.

Too cute, to drop summer bracelets and scrunchies in.

Three vintage Mary Englebreit note cards.  I still have a few friends I write real notes to, and though her doggy is not a Pug, he is a very sweet Scotty instead. You know how expensive cards are nowadays, so these equal .33 cents each. Love them.

A paper mache heart box to paint and add to my stack of good and faux boxes.

The design is quite charming---inspiration for a wool applique piece, like a pincushion? The dragonflies are pale blue, not white---blue being the unintended but apparent theme of this outing.

And.....Yes, yes, I caved and bought a glass flower frog. This one was so unusual with  its oval shape, and again, only 99 cents, not 5 dollars like the ones at the church flea.

Back to the garments:

 This is a very interesting heavy cotton wrap dress. I bought it to cut up for early summer couch pillows, like red-white-and-blue Mem Day through the 4th of July, but it's really cute. How about wearing it to a summer wedding or shower, with nude high heels and my gold and pearls seashell necklace. Hmmm.

Love the fabric, though the red ran like crazy in the wash. Thank goodness for Color Catchers.

And this very cute 100% linen floaty shirt, chosen for the black poppies silhouette print, but I may wear it too--black tank top, khaki capris, black cotton espadrilles, crochet string/ leather market tote. How cool is that, I''ll be so stylish this summer.

Did NOT buy: there were three red and white reindeer/ pine tree ski sweaters, each different, all handmade. Big. I wanted to get them to felt[? [this one is cotton, won't felt], and to make into throw pillows for etsy next year. But next Christmas seemed so far far away and I passed them up. Maybe a ''too bad"? Prob not cost effective, I think they were 9.99 each.

Today was very cold but sunny. Off and on we've been having warmer than usual days and no snow. I kind of hope that is how the rest of this winter goes, but then I cringe to think of a summer that is also 20* above normal. We'll roast like hot dogs, won't we.

And now for the Give Away. EDIT: Since nobody has claimed the panels, I am feeling sad and sorry for it, so unloved. I think I will chop up one panel for my piano key border I am working on. I will make it beautiful [to me] by reworking it. There is still another panel left, if anyone would give it some love and a home.

original offer: I bought this fabric panel for the sayings, to use as parts of quilt labels or backings. The other sayings range from wonderful, Amelia Earhart, about the ''stars at your back..'', Walt Whitman, I forget what he had to say...but I really really HATE this saying, I hate being told what to to, what to have in my house--- it reminds me of that Marie Kondo woman, with her silly foot kick and finger pointing at all my finds and treasures----



But perhaps you are a minimalist and like this fabric?   I can either throw this away or I will give it to the first person [US only, sorry] who claims it here. Feel free to chop it up so only the graphic block and white lettering remains and the message is obscured? Or use as you will. Free free free. Want it?

width of fabric, 2 panels on 44". 100% cotton. Images are about the size of a magazine, larger than one might expect.

PS I do have a few items on my wish list, but I don't think they're going to be thrift shop finds: milk glass candy dishes with the pierced ruffle around the bowl. These make darling pincushions with built in scissor holders; miniature blue and white pitchers, usually Blue Willow children's tea sets [creamer, milk jug--do NOT want teapots! or cups etc], but also sometimes from Japan. And thimbles still, more on that in a future post.

have a great weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....